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Always thought I would work in IP lit with my background and work experience tailored towards it, but having some doubts as of recent. Have an offer at a V5 after interviewing with tech transactional group. Every other position is lit.

Anyone mind sharing pros and cons? Is tech transactional a hot field? The constant fighting in litigation seems stressful, but worried about taking a leap into transactional work with no background.

Don't worry about not having a background in transactional work, almost no one does. Pretty much everyone learns as they go along. Many people go IP lit because they have the background for it, and then quickly find out they don't like the competition of litigation or some of the drudgery of IP lit in particular (claim charts are truly the worst).

In terms of pros and cons, the biggest pro of doing tech trans is that it is much much easier to go in house and the comp can be great. I have a friend who went in house at a FAANG company after about 2.5 years in big law and is making about the same as a third year in big law while working 40 hour weeks. Tech trans lawyers often do many of the exact kinds of things that a company's in house counsel does, so the work sets you up well to go in house. On the other hand, Ii can be very difficult to go in house from IP lit. Unless you think you are trying to be a lifer in biglaw or you truly love litigation, I'd go for the tech trans job.

There's not really any huge pro to IP lit unles you will just hate corporate work or your ideal long term job is a litigation role.

I started in an IP lit role originally and switched to a tech trans role work. Of the 8 IP lit associates I started with, about half have changed to tech trans or are actively trying to do so. I know of one person who is trying to shift to tech trans after 6 years of doing IP lit.

I am the third IP lit associate in my small office group to go in house in the last couple of years. It’s definitely harder than from a transactional role, at least w/r/t to generalist roles.

Not to hijack, but can someone explain what tech transactions is? Is it negotiating licensing agreements all day?

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Wed Aug 11, 2021 10:54 pm

Always thought I would work in IP lit with my background and work experience tailored towards it, but having some doubts as of recent. Have an offer at a V5 after interviewing with tech transactional group. Every other position is lit.

Anyone mind sharing pros and cons? Is tech transactional a hot field? The constant fighting in litigation seems stressful, but worried about taking a leap into transactional work with no background.

It depends. If it's a V5, you're probably doing all or almost all deal support. You can still take that experience and move to a good company, but just make sure you're OK doing the same IP diligence on repeat and moving at the same pace as all the M&A deals you're staffed to support on.

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 12, 2021 2:29 am

Anonymous User wrote: ↑

Wed Aug 11, 2021 10:54 pm

Always thought I would work in IP lit with my background and work experience tailored towards it, but having some doubts as of recent. Have an offer at a V5 after interviewing with tech transactional group. Every other position is lit.

Anyone mind sharing pros and cons? Is tech transactional a hot field? The constant fighting in litigation seems stressful, but worried about taking a leap into transactional work with no background.

It depends. If it's a V5, you're probably doing all or almost all deal support. You can still take that experience and move to a good company, but just make sure you're OK doing the same IP diligence on repeat and moving at the same pace as all the M&A deals you're staffed to support on.

I agree with the above. I'm a junior IP litigator looking to switch to tech trans. Not interested in v5 because it's mostly deal support and that's not the most interesting type work to me. It also seems fairly doable to start as a corporate generalist and then switch over to tech trans.

Former IP lit associate, current corporate counsel. Don't do IP lit if you want to go in-house.

I literally applied to hundreds of jobs before managing a handful of interviews and snagging one in-house offer. I don't handle IP litigation cases in-house today, but rather a mix of regulatory/corporate/general lit issues. It was difficult to sell myself as a business-focused in-house counsel during interviews because I was a litigator by training.

On the other hand, doing IP lit meant meeting hours every year at the firm & getting bonuses every year, so it's a matter of looking at what you want short-term vs what you want to do with your career long-term.